Judiciary of Germany - Courts

Courts

The primary legislation concerning court organization is the Courts Constitution Act (Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz, or GVG). The courts are characterized by being specialist, regional, and hierarchically integrated at the federal level. There are 5 basic types of courts, plus the Federal Constitutional Court:

• Ordinary courts, dealing with criminal and most civil cases. The Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) is the highest ordinary court.
• Administrative law courts. The Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) is the highest administrative law court.
• Tax law courts. The Federal Finance Court (Bundesfinanzhof) is the highest tax law court.
• Labour law courts. The Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht) is the highest labour law court.
• Social law courts. The Federal Social Court (Bundessozialgericht) is the highest social law court.
• Constitutional law courts, focusing on judicial review and constitutional interpretation. The Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) is the highest court dealing with constitutional matters.

The main difference between the Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court is that the Federal Constitutional Court may only be called if a constitutional matter within a case is in question (e.g. a possible violation of human rights in a criminal trial), while the Federal Court of Justice may be called in any case.

Ordinary courts are the most numerous by far. Currently there are 828 ordinary courts (687 local, 116 regional, 24 appellate, one federal), 142 labour courts (122 local, 19 appellate, one federal), 69 administrative courts (52 local, 16 higher, one federal), 20 tax courts (19 local, one federal), 86 social courts (69 local, 16 appellate, one federal) and 17 constitutional courts (16 State Constitutional Courts, one Federal Constitutional Court).